Operation: BattleAxe
by Yellow 13
Summary: Another part of my crossover series. the Soviet need spacecraft, so they go to the Starcraft universe and fight the Terran Dominion and the Zerg Swarm.
1. mobilization

Operation: Battle Axe

Supreme Commander Romanov

Generals' Conference Room

The Kremlin, Moscow

1200 Hours Local

I went into the meeting and was surprised to see that everyone had managed to come on time. So, even though everyone was here, we had a brief five minute chat in when I placed the two artefact fragments on the table. As I put the two together, I noticed something: a small, round hole in the hilt when they were together. You'd never notice it when they weren't together, but now…

Anyways, I left the two fragments on the table, and let the other generals have a look at them. The other generals didn't know what to make of it, so I just left it at that, and started the meeting.

"So far," CABAL began. "There has been no Yeerk troop movement that I am detecting; therefore, there is no better time then now to start gaining technology. I have recently discovered another universe that should be sufficient for the job.

"Most of the activity in this Universe is centered around several planetary systems of varying climates. The three major sides in this universe, the Terrans, Zerg and Protoss, have always been fighting amongst themselves.

"It is the Zerg; however that are doing the majority of the fighting. If I may direct your attention to the briefing screen, I will show you what information I have collected from this universe,"

We all glanced towards the 'Big Board' and watched as images of insect-like THINGS fighting what seemed to be an alien race whose warriors seemed to have some kind of energy shield that absorbed the 'Zerg's' attacks; At least, temporarily. Before long, they stopped, and the alien warriors got ripped apart.

The Zerg attack was repelled, and I studied both sides' tactics: the Zerg seemed more useful in large numbers, while the Protoss seemed to use superior firepower. It wasn't a good combination for either side as they both had short-term gain, long-term loss. The Zerg had an early advantage with their numbers because with them, the opponent couldn't stop them in time. However, once the enemy got up and running, their numbers were less effective.

The Protoss had superior technology, but everything was expensive. Meaning they had the disadvantage until they got high enough to bring out their best pieces of firepower. But, it had somehow worked for them.

"CABAL," I asked. "What are the chances of us joining wither one of these three sides?"

"I have already calculated those odds, and I have determined that we will not be ale to make a successful alliance with the Zerg. The Terrans are another unlikely possibility. Therefore, it would be best to make an alliance with the Protoss first, then attack and take over the Terrans."

"CABAL," General Leang said. "Clarify your plan. I don't understand it."

"Very well," Cabal continued calmly. "The Terrans are lead by a fascist leader named Arcturus Mengsk. As you have guessed already, he is not a suitable candidate for an alliance. The Zerg are also not suitable for an alliance as they are vicious animals. The most likely ally would be the Protoss, as long as we don't fight them."

CABAL continued briefing us on all that he had managed to find out, and the UCAV EDI also gave us his version of the intelligence briefing. He briefed us on all the different Zerg strains, and what they could do, as well as the technology that could help us in the fight against the Yeerks.

I took especial interest in the potential capabilities of merging technologies together. Before this new war had started, we had a massive Army, Navy and Air Force, but we didn't have anything that could go into space and attack from there with ease.

Oh sure, we had the Particle Cannon, and the Ion Cannon, but those weren't anything close to what the Protoss, or even the Terrans, had.

Soon afterwards, we all decided on a mission plan: General Towns, Dr. Thrax, and General Fai would accompany me to meet the Dark Templar Matriarch, while the rest of our forces would hold back, and wait until they received the word to move in and start our base construction.

Apparently, resource gathering was going to be a bit of a problem. They had two main kinds of resources, and each was essential for constructing their armies; Minerals and Vespane Gas. The gas came from geysers, and Minerals were found all over the place. Now, while this made it easy to FIND them, harvesting them was a whole different matter.

Until recently, we used gems and ore to get funding for our armies, and after that, supplies that came from either docks or supply piles. And after that, we used Blue and Green Tiberium (Blue being wroth more, but exploded easily).

Kane, the leader of The Brotherhood of Nod suggested that we bring Tiberium into this universe as well, but each General quickly shot that idea down. We had only recently managed to control the spread of Tiberium, but we didn't know how to control it enough so we could grow it elsewhere.

Eventually, we all decided to modify our existing mining units—robot miners, Chrono Miners, War Miners, Harvesters, Supply Trucks, and CH-47 'Chinooks'— so they would be able to harvest the new resources. We'd get money for our own bases from several hundred of General Fai's Hackers, as well as Black Lotus.

They would be able to ensure a steady stream of cash flow for our own forces, while the modified mining units would get funding for the new units. It would work out easily, and

Provided that the Protoss saw things our way, we'd have a full new army ready to use as well as a more advanced army that consisted of spliced technology from us and them.

We all got ready a few minutes later, and soon after that, we were ready. Einstein's Chronosphere cane to life, and he entered the appropriate code that would take us there. Seconds later, I felt as though I had just died. It wasn't painful, more like a temporary state of non-existence before we were on the surface of an alien planet.

Most of us were wearing the Zone Trooper's combat suit, although I had always trusted the Desolator's Nuclear Battle suit ever since I had first seen it's use on the Moon.

"Dr. Thrax, what's the air like on this planet?" I asked over the radio.

There was a pause, then: "the atmosphere seems to be breathable. I'm detecting slight toxic elements, but then every place has toxins."

"Lethal concentrations?"

"no sir, no more lethal then our own atmosphere."

"Very well," I said, and I took off the helmet for the combat suit. I took in a few deep breaths, and nothing happened. The others saw my display, and did the same. Once assured that we weren't going to die, we started walking towards the nearest base which was about four kilometres North of our present location.


	2. first encounters

Chapter two

General 'Pinpoint' Towns

Dunes of Shakuras

2145 hours local

I took off the face shield of my Zone Trooper's uniform and took a breath. Nope, there weren't any toxins that I could detect, and I wasn't dead, so the atmosphere must breathable. As we walked towards the Protoss main base, I had an uneasy feeling about this situation.

It was quiet, TOO quiet. I was about to voice my opinions of this, when I heard a quick, sharp psychic voice shoot though my brain. "Drop your weapons, Terran!" I took a quick look around, and I saw nothing at all. No, scratch that: I saw a blur of motion, but I couldn't see any more then that. Energy from some kind of invisible weapon crackled in the air, and we still couldn't see anything. _Cloaking,_ I thought.

We did, and a hard, metallic something collided with the side of my head. I fought against the waves of pain and darkness, but I failed.

I woke up on a hard, smooth floor. Almost like marble, but when I opened my eyes, I saw that it was actually some sort of metal. Feeling the bump on my head from where I was hit, I muttered: "I'm getting too old for this shit."

Maybe a few years ago, I could have taken that hit, and woken up with nothing more then a slight headache, but I was getting older, and getting older meant I was getting slower and weaker when it came to me actually going into combat.

I still did from time to time, but I usually wound up afterwards with something sore and aching. I was better off just sticking with my laser development then fighting personally. It was one of the things I couldn't accept: keeping my hands off my old job.

Anyways, I got up, groaned for a while, and then slowly stood to attention. When I was fully awake, another psychic voice went through my brain. "What brings you here, Terrans?"

Unlike the first 'voice', this one sounded older. Not like me, but ancient; as though the person using it had been alive for centuries. It 'spoke' again.

"I see you would rather have introductions first. My name is Zeratul, acting Matriarch of the Dark Templar."

We all nodded, and gave introductions. As we did so, I felt something probing my mind, and I tried to shut it off. I had training against Yuri's psychic powers, and I knew how to prevent him from getting into my head. But that's when I'm ready for it, like when I'm about to go onto a battlefield that has Yuri Clones or Psychic Towers on it.

Eventually, the probe left my mind and Zeratul said: "I see, yes very well. Bring all of your forces here as soon as possible. The Zerg are once again attacking Shakuras, and this time, I fear even the power of the Xel'Naga Temple will stay their broods."

We got our forces set up and after a few short hours, we were ready for almost anything.

Veronica Barnes

Zerg Hive Cluster, Shakuras

0301 Hours Local

It was pretty quiet, so I decided to get some sleep. Sleeping close to the front lines in full battle gear isn't too comfortable, but doing this allows me to be ready in a matter of seconds as opposed to minuets if I wasn't.

As I was sleeping, I guess that's when they hit. Since I was asleep and the alarms didn't sound, I didn't wake up. At least, I didn't wake up until that stinger went into me. I shot awake and tried to grab my gun, but I was paralyzed! Looking around in fear, I saw one of the creatures already identified as a Zerg Matriarch --a more powerful version of the normal Zerg Queen-- starting at me with its large dark red orb-like eyes.

All I could do was stare in horror as the Matriarch started to cover me in this sort of slime-like substance that began to harden as soon as it touched me. Eventually, it was so thick around my entire body that it formed almost a cocoon. Once the darkness was complete, I heard: "Soon my child, you will be reborn into the swarm. You will be my next agent of the Swarm…"

I don't remember much of what happened next, other then the pain. You can't even BEGIN to imagine the pain. I couldn't see WHAT was happening to me, but it felt like something was forcing its way into my skin!

After a while, I started to forget who I was. The pain… the voice… it all merged together treating to strip me of my sanity and leave me just a husk for these… THINGS. I wouldn't let it happen!

Twisting in my cocoon, I found that the effects from the stinger were gone. I could move again! Not that there was much room to move around in, but I HAD to escape! Making a fist, something shot out of my knuckles, and then those things shot out with tremendous force, shattering the cocoon, and giving me more room tom move.

_COME ON! _I thought as I forced the small hole bigger. _Don't give up now!_

_You fool. _That same deep voice said. _No Zerg can escape my will. Return to your chrysalis. You are not ready yet. _

_SHUT UP! _I roared mentally. _I'm NOT going to end up as your slave like Kerrigan! _I was stunned. I knew the name of the Queen of Blades, but I had never seen her, or even HEARD of her before. What was happening to me!?

_No time to worry about that now! _I thought, panicked. My fingers grabbed the hole of the cocoon, and I pulled up with as much force as I could muster. I heard cracking, and eventually its walls split open and I found myself staring right into the Dark Templar's Sun. the light was blinding, but I welcomed it. At least for a few minuets before I started to free myself more completely.

Once I was free, several things about my size if I was lying down scuttled over and picked up the pieces of the cocoon. Once they were finished, I looked at them, and they suddenly stopped. After blinking a few times wondering what they were doing, my vision instantly went into one of them.

I stumbled back, tripping over my new six legs, and I stared at the human that was in front of me, almost in a trace. It was a female, and I could see every detail of her face; long blood-red hair, tan skin, green eyes, and the soaking wet military uniform.

I was looking at a face that I had seen my entire life: my own.

I shot back into my own body, and the thing on the ground went back to its duties. I knew what that thing was: a Zerg Drone. I turned tail and ran as fast as I could. I had to make a shortcut right through a Zerg base, but they didn't seem to notice me, or care.

Eventually, I made it back to the front lines of the Soviet base, and I saw Elena Michaels. She was also in the navy like I was, but as a Carrier Pilot with the Shcnee Squadron. We were more or less friends, but if Clayton, her RIO and boyfriend was around, he'd usually just glare at me until I went away.

Seeing that he wasn't around, I slipped past a Gattling cannon and a laser cannon that were placed in close proximity to each other and I started running towards her. As I got near, she looked up as if trying to find somebody, but I knew that wasn't the case. Elena was a Werewolf, and as such, she had better smell then most humans, so I knew she was scenting the air.

I took a few sniffs of the air, not expecting to smell anything, but I recoiled when I smelled Elena's wolf scent! Elena turned towards me, and I felt the colour drain from my face. She rushed at me, and I just reacted.

I somehow managed to punch her, and she hit me, but I strangely didn't feel much of anything. She held her hand for a moment, and then I saw that claws were starting form on it. I reacted again, and the things on my knuckles popped out again. I was shocked to realize that those were some kind of spine! They were about 8 cm long, and they looked hard, sharp, and slightly wet from something.

She was about to swing her clawed hand at me, when I heard the psychic Yuri call out into my head: "Report to medical. NOW."

Elena stopped for a second, obviously confused as to whatever Yuri's message to her was, but she stood down, and decided to escort me to medical. As we walked there, she kept glaring at me not saying a single word. We walked in, and she turned around, leaving me with the doctors there.

The doctors took X-rays, and checked the machine as soon as the images came back. They showed me, and my eyes widened. According to those, I had NO bones anymore with the exception of the ones in my ear! The rest of me was some kind of exoskeleton. My hands showed that something almost as hard as metal was embedded in-between my knuckles, and near those were some kind of gland that wasn't there before!

The medics said that they'd like to keep my there for a few more tests, and I had accepted. Whatever was done to me was looking downright weird at best, and outright nasty at worse.


	3. Infestation

Chapter three

Veronica Barnes

Alpha Base, Shakuras

Medical Division

1534 Hours Local

Now that the pain was gone, and the doctors had told me to get some sleep while they did some tissue tests, I was only too happy to comply. Nothing hurt anymore, and they had taken a few skin samples for study. Laying down on one of the infirmary's many beds; I started to hear that voice again.

_You are truly foolish my child. You can't disobey my will forever. You WILL kill the humans and take command of the swarm._

I kept seeing these visions of what the Zerg were. I saw horrible scenes of killing, ripping, eating, and moving onto the next batch of humans to slaughter everyone in that area, and so on for as long as the vision lasted. No. I would NOT join these monsters. After what seemed like hours of resisting the pull from the Overmind, I woke up in a cold sweat.

Getting myself into a sitting position, I tried to get used to my newly heightened senses. My sight was altered slightly so now I could actually see… something when I looked at people. Remembering my High School Biology, I was shocked to realise that what I was seeing was just the faint outlines of organs!

Obviously, my infestation wasn't complete yet and as such, I still had mostly human eyesight. I suspect that if I had actually FINISHED it, I'd be able to easily see every weak point on a human's body with a single glance.

Closing my eyes, I went onto my hearing. Generally, it wasn't too different, but it was just sharper. All the sounds I heard were just slightly louder, and I could tell where they were coming from better, but that was about it.

Moving onto smell, it was again, not too different, but I could pick up more subtle odours, mostly from the rinse stations that the doctors used to wash their hands with before attempting to operate on anybody. The disinfectant was also pretty powerful now, and was starting to get a headache, but I went on to test something else about my new body: my flexibility.

Officially being an invertebrate now, I started doing some stretches to see if being without bones affected me in any way, other then not just being able to feel my skeleton anymore. I still had the full normal range of motion, and I could also go outside it.

Eventually, the doctors came back with a manila folder and they passed it to me. Reading it, I found out what I could and could not do physically. Among the list of the things I couldn't do was being able to lift more then 500 pounds. They explained that because my skeleton was no longer getting in the way of my muscles, I now had more of them to replace the bones making me stronger.

The report also explained that the things in my wrist were in fact spines covered in a deadly poison lethal in just a few seconds to just about anything short of the bigger Zerg strains. They had also found that I could, if I wanted to, launch those spines with enough force to go right through a light tank. And if that wasn't enough, I could apparently re-grow them after I launched them.

After skimming down the report, I found that among other things according to Yuri, I could apparently control a small number of Zerg if I got close enough to them, and could maintain enough control over myself so I wouldn't go insane and be taken over by the Overmind.

Walking out of Medical, I went back onto the main defensive line, and boarded onto one of the many Aircraft Carriers that General Granger had. At that point in my navel career, I was known as after I got my list of paperwork I had missed, I went onto the flight deck to see how everyone was managing. Everything seemed to be in order, varying coloured people in Nomex jerseys doing their respective jobs, Aviators getting into or out of their aircraft, Catapults launching aircraft regularly; yep, everything seemed to be in order.

It was normally my job to do this from the relative safety of Pri-Fly (Primary Flight Control) in the carrier's island, but this time, I wanted to show everybody on the deck that their CO had things well in hand.

Walking back towards the carrier's island, I spotted Elena and Clayton. They kept their distance, and went into their aircraft. Going inside, I found the flight schedule and wasn't surprised that in my absence, the Mini-Boss, my assistant, had taken the liberty of saving me the trouble. I made a mental note to thank him later, and went to get something to eat in the Officer's Mess Hall.

When I entered, everyone in the Mess Hall looked up from their meal or conversation and stared at me for a few seconds before lapsing back into whatever they were doing. It was clear that the medical personnel had notified everyone about me and what had happened. I had the sneaking suspicion that it was going to be a while before anyone except my closest friends deemed me safe to be around.

Supreme Commander Romanov

General's Conference Room

Base Alpha, Shakuras

1712 Hours Local

We were all discussing plans of attack as to how we'd take down the Zerg threat on this planet and prove to the Protoss that they had not made a mistake in sheltering us temporarily. General Tao and Alexander volunteered to simply obliterate the threat with their powerful superweapons, but I had declined on that.

"Commander," Dr. Thrax said suddenly. "I may have a way on how we can destroy the threat. I have been analysing Veronica Barnes' DNA and I have found some interesting anomalies."

I knew what he was going to say, but I said: "Go on."

"The Zerg portions of her DNA consist of several instabilities which I believe the right form of toxin can easily destroy. I need some time to prepare a weapon that will, if successful, kill every Zerg on this entire planet AND not harm a single other living creature."

"But what about Veronica?" General Granger put in. "She's one of my people, and a damn fine aviator when given the chance. So if you ARE going to prepare this weapon of yours, I suggest you talk to her first!"

Thrax nodded, and I glared at him. General Granger couldn't directly order Thrax to do anything, because they both held the same rank of Four-Star General. I however held the rank of Supreme Commander of the Soviet Union, the highest rank in one of the most powerful countries on the planet. (Where I was from, naturally) the only person even I couldn't order directly: AAAA General Leang of the People's Liberation Army of China, but we were more or less friends so she'd act on my suggestions if they were reasonable.

"Kassad," I said after a few seconds. "Have your forces infiltrate one of the Zerg's bases and see if they can find a weakness. Or, if their defences are too thick, General Granger will have the Arkbird spy over the area."

They both nodded, and I knew that one or the other would be able to get the information we needed. I'd also have a talk with Veronica personally to see what she could tell us, but I didn't expect too much from her.

The meeting was concluded, and everyone went to follow their assigned orders. I went into my office, was relieved to find no paperwork for a change, and called Veronica up to my office. She arrived faster then I expected, but then when the Supreme Commander tells you he wants to see you alone in his office, you go as fast as you possible can to get there.

"You wanted to see me, Sir?" she asked when my Aide let her in.

"Da, please, have a seat." Once she was sitting down on the chair I had directly in front of my desk, I said: "So Captain tell me everything you remember about your… experience with the Zerg."

She shuddered for a second, and then told me everything she knew, which wasn't a whole lot. Mostly, she described her experience of being infested, but we both knew that that wasn't what I was looking for. Eventually, she got to the part where she broke out, and saw the Main Zerg Base on this planet. That could be a break, in addition to having orbital intelligence from Arkbird; we'd also have an on-the-ground report that was BOUND to come in handy for when we made our later attacks.


	4. death from the stars

Chapter Four

Nicky Hammond

100 Kilometres above Shakuras

Arkbird

1745 Hours Local

I pushed off against one of the 'walls' of the Arkbird and aimed myself for the control room. My aim was a bit off, and I wound up having to put my hands in front of my face so I wouldn't slam into the wall. I hit the wall, and sort of bounced off. Damn… that was the third time today… moving in a Zero-G environment is always a bit of a challenge, especially when you're fresh out of the training pipeline like I was.

The Zero Gravity training I had wasn't as good as it could have been either, so I kept moving in the wrong ways. I supposed I'd get used to it eventually, but in the meantime, I was like a slow motion pinball. The more experience astronauts chucked at my performance, but I knew they wouldn't do that for long. I was the only one on board qualified to operate the heavy laser cannon, and in the Arkbird, that was considered a high honour.

I managed to drift into the control room just as our orders for the day came through. Fairly simple enough: fins the main Zerg base on this planet, do some photoreconnaissance, and if possible blast the area to smithereens with our laser cannon and out fighters. I grinned when I saw that. The poor Zerg bastards would never know what hit them.

The Arkbird's laser cannon was so precise that it could actually be used as an Anti-Ballistic Missile defence system. Combine that with the 'Excalibur' class ground-based laser cannon, and you had one REALLY deadly weapons package. One of the reasons as to why the laser cannon was so advanced was because of the extremely powerful tracking systems one of which was the SPY-2 Search-and-Track radar.

It was based off the AEGIS ship's SPY-1, only this was infinitely more sophisticated because this radar could track several thousand targets simultaneously and guide the laser cannon onto them. _The machines,_ I thought _are getting more sophisticated and powerful then the people that use them… pretty soon, we'll be outta work. _

I shook my head, and passed the order onto the astronauts who each read it. Once the Chief Military Officer on board read it, he said: "well, if the Supreme Commander of the Soviet Union says so, we'd better get on with it. Set course for the main Zerg base at the coordinates that are given, and take you positions."

We all went to our assigned stations, and waited as the helmsman put our course to descend into the upper atmosphere, where we'd use air friction to lower our speed and adjust our course. This was the most risky part of the Arkbird's existence. The previous one had been destroyed by the same means when the four Demons of Razgriz attacked it, and shot it down.

Through the decent, I found myself holding my breath as the re-entry process began. The Arkbird had no windows or view ports to see out, only a few airlocks that went outside so we could work on the ship if it got damaged, but I knew what was going on outside. The exterior of the ship was glowing red-hot as the air heated up due to our speed and as the rumbling increased, the air itself had caught fire as we fell, but seconds later, we were clear, and slowing down.

Once we had slowed down enough, the helmsman reengaged the rocket boosters again, and we climbed back up into space, now on course for the Zerg main base. Arriving over it soon after, I selected the primary laser canon controls and set it to manual aim so I could see what was going on, and so I could pinpoint the places where I'd be able to inflict the maximum amount of damage in the shortest possible time.

We settled into a geosynchronous orbit –meaning that we'd be flying above them at all times, and not move away unexpectedly—and started to gather information. I saw that several giant worm-like things must have been doing SOMETHING because a fair number of the Zerg were surrounding them on the ground, and in the air, but that wouldn't stop me from getting a clear shot at them.

Taking careful aim after the reconnaissance mission was complete, I fired and the laser cannon reacted instantly, shooting a bright blue beam of light directly onto one of the worm-things. It hit, and burned a hole right through what I guessed to be its head, and the Zerg surrounding the thing went into chaos. Seeing another one of the worm-things, I fired again, this time even more of the forces went berserk, and some even started to attack each other. Firing again and again, I eventually saw that the worm-things were coming back to life as if by magic or something, when I psionic voice entered my brain.

_Those are Zerg Cerebrates, Terran. You cannot kill them with your weapons. Leave the extermination of these foul creatures to us as only WE can kill them. _

I decided to obey, not sure if hearing voices or not was a good thing, but I instead switched firing to almost everything else. Eventually, after a while of pummelling, the Zerg enventually realised where the attacks where coming from, and their flies started to climb up to meet us. Another one of the astronauts noticed this, and armed the small laser and AAM sites as well launching the drone fighters we had.

The drones, properly called R-310 'Remoras' were EXTREAMLY fast, small, unmanned aerial drones that could not only operate well in space, but EXCELLED in doing so because there was nothing to slow them down at high speeds. Their weapons consisted of missiles and a small laser cannon that was originally a scaled-down model of the ADF-01's laser, but it became less powerful as it was fitted onto the Remora's airframe. There was talk about modifying the airframe so that it could actually become a manned fighter, but I doubted that would ever happen. The Remora was simply too small to hold any conventional cockpit.

Anyways, the Remoras blasted away on their single rocket booster and went to engage the enemy fliers. The Arkbird could carry twelve Remoras in all, although it could control up to twenty at one time if the need came. But because we weren't supposed to actually be going in an air battle, we only had twelve on our side, plus me, and the secondary gunner who controlled the small laser and AAMs against an armada of well over one thousand enemies… not good odds. Not good odds at all.

I aimed the heavy laser cannon at the incoming fliers and fired of several beams, each one slicing though masses of the things like a hot knife through butter, but still more of them kept coming. The Chief Military Officer had called in for reinforcements, but the radio operator had said that the only thing that could reach us would be the SOLG, but even then there was the danger to ourselves, and the Dark Templars down there on the ground if that thing fired.

The SOLG was the exact opposite of what the Arkbird was. It was a gigantic unmanned orbital Attack Satellite that was most often equipped with nuclear weapons. Because of this, it wasn't very accurate because it simple didn't NEED to be. Once fired, the nuclear warhead would do the work, and even then, well… it's a NUKE it doesn't HAVE to be accurate, it just has to be close.

The Chief authorised the use of the SOLG, but we'd have to wait about three minutes before it got to within effective firing position. Three minutes, against an aerial armada of well over a thousand enemies with one powerful laser, a smaller laser, four AAM sites, and twelve Remora drones. things weren't looking good.


	5. Kerrigan's encounter

Chapter Five

Supreme Commander Romanov

Office of the Commander

Base Alpha, Shakuras

1757 Hours Local

After getting nothing from Veronica Barnes, I dismissed her, and told her to go back to her Carrier. She stood up, saluted, and left. Once she was gone, my aide placed a transmission into my office. The Arkbird was under attack, and the SOLG had been called in to help. It was doing a good job at blasting away the enemy forces, but they just kept coming.

I picked up the telephone connected to General Tao's office, and waited for him to answer it. When he did, I simply said: "I'm sending you coordinates. Fire."

"Yes Comrade, I understand."

A few seconds later, the nuclear missiles that Tao always had in his base blasted straight up as Ballistic missiles tend to do, and they soon disappeared from sight. It would only be a matter of seconds now before the missiles started to bombard the Zerg forces on the planet, and wipe them out. Especially considering that these missiles were MIRV (Multiple Independently-Targeting Reentry Vehicles); basically a nuclear missiles that broke off into, in this case, ten smaller nuclear missiles that destroy the target and surrounding area.

Nicky Hammond

100 Kilometres above Shakuras

Arkbird

1800 Hours Local

The nuclear missiles from the main base had come out of nowhere it seemed and nobody had even bothered to tell the rest of us. I ignored them, and focused on the swarming enemy fliers, and kept blasting them apart with the heavy laser cannon. The Remoras were doing their best, but we had lost two of them already to some Zerg strain that was almost the same size as they were, and almost as fast and manoeuvrable as they were. Our communications gear sent a message to the base and now, that message was being read. Apparently, they were Zerg Scourge; Flying suicide units that were easy to produce, and dealt a heavy blow to anything slower then a hypersonic fighter. I didn't even want to THINK about what they could do to us…

Disregarding that nervous feeling, I continued to attack the enemy forces, and then all of a sudden, they just stopped! The swarms of attacking enemy flies simply fell out of the sky as though somebody had pushed a button, the Scourge were blowing up in mid-flight as though trying to get a desperate attack off at us. After the enemy flies crashed onto the ground, I went back to the visual targeting device for the laser, and saw that the giant worm-like things were now dead, and several indistinct, blurry somethings were moving away from the carcasses.

In my mind, I heard: _thank you for the diversion, Terran. You have helped us kill these foul monstrosities and keep our homeworld clean of the Zerg. _

_Uhh… thanks, I guess. Happy to help! _I thought back, hoping they would get the message. Being a werewolf, I knew I had SOME telepathic abilities, but I preferred not to use them.

We stayed around to confirm the destruction of the Cerebrates, and after that was done, we headed for the relative safety of a higher orbit. I needed to Change somewhat soon, although I had long since learned how to do it in zero gravity. It was a bit weird to experience it the first time, but I got used to it.

Veronica Barnes

Base Alpha, Shakuras

1801 Hours Local

The pounding from the Overmind on control of my body just suddenly stopped, and my headache instantly relaxed. i had a few seconds to myself before I was suddenly without warning, stripped from my body, and shot across God-only-knows how many light-years until I got to some kind of planet that looked like it was an entire volcanic event, but what was on that planet other then volcanoes were Zerg. LOTS of Zerg. Maybe enough to call that their homeworld.

As suddenly as the vision came, it ended, and I was left on the cold steel deck of the Carrier gasping for air. Several nearby personnel helped me to my feet and I suddenly felt very weak. I refused going to medical for the simple reason that the doctors wouldn't know what to do with me. Technically, according to almost everybody military or otherwise, I was an entirely new life-form and while that may sound cold, it was simply a fact.

After recovering enough strength to tell my assistant the Mini-boss to take over the Carrier's aircraft launch, I managed to walk into my quarters and flop down onto my rack and fall asleep.

I was taken to that mysterious ash-world again. This time, it wasn't so fast that I couldn't see anything, and I could actually move around almost like a ghost. None of the Zerg even knew I was there, and often times, I walked right through some of them. I was about to walk through another Hydralisk, but I actually did the same thing I did with those drones when I first came out of my chrysalis. I seemed to take it over.

Not used to having only a tail for movement, I toppled over, and sort of squished a smaller Zerg of some kind. Propping myself on my arms—which were now some kind of scythe-like thing—I looked at the creature I landed on top of, and my brain instantly knew what it was: a Zergling, a smaller type of Zerg designed for fast, early attacks.

After learning how to balance myself on the new tail I had, I started trying to move, but I kept falling over because I wasn't used to this body just yet. Eventually, I found what seemed to work: slithering like a snake seemed to work fairly easily, and it was also pretty fast. Much faster then I'd be able to go if I was on foot.

After a while of scouting, I finally saw something that made my blood run cold. Kerrigan; the Queen of Blades herself. I tried to turn and run, but she was faster then I was and I was knocked down with tremendous force. Trying to figure out what was happening; I was suddenly picked up and thrown against a rock wall with enough force to make part of the Hydralisk's exoskeleton break.

I heard laughing echoing from her, and she said: "did you really think you could fool me in THAT Veronica? I'm infested, just like you and I can easily see you hiding in that minion's body. I may not be able to KILL you here, but I CAN make you wish you were dead."

I tried to squirm away, but she was once again too fast for me, and I felt more exoskeleton break under the strain of her ferocious blows. Screaming in pain, both with the Hydralisk's vocal cords, and mentally, I felt her start to use her psionic powers on me.


	6. Dogfight above Korhal

Chapter Six

Veronica Barns

Central Zerg base, Planet Char

0550 Hours Local

Kerrigan attacked me again and again with psychic blows, and under each one, I felt I knew what an egg must feel like before it gets cracked open. Another kick cracked open part of the Hydralisk's side, and I nearly blacked out from the pain. She was about to hit me again, but in pure reflex, I blocked her attack. Looking into what was once a human face, I got the Hydralisk's needle spines ready, and I fired off a salvo!

The spines blasted out of their chest cavity and at point-blank range, Kerrigan had little time to react as they blasted away speeds that rivalled the high-velocity rounds on most fighter aircraft. At ranges, those spines normally embedded themselves into flesh, steel, concrete or some other material and shattered on impact to inject a virus that would kill any living thing in a matter of days if not treated extremely quickly.

At point-blank range though, the spines had no chance to shatter and instead punched several fist-sized holes right through Kerrigan! She looked down at the normally fatal wounds in disbelief and I took that opportunity to slash at her with the Hydralisk's scythes. I must have hit her across the head with the dull edge of one of them because she seemed to pass out a few seconds later. When she did, all the Zerg around me simply stopped what they were doing, and went onto attacking each other!

_Time to go,_ I thought. And I tried to pull myself away from the wounded Hydralisk and go back to my own body. The pain from Kerrigan's attacks was getting worse, and I was starting to wonder what would happen if I died in this body.

I shuddered at the worst-case scenario at being reincarnated as this monstrosity, and tired again to push myself away from the Hydralisk.

Captain Felix Graff

Above Korhal, Tarsonis

1456 Hours Local

The SU-37 'Terminator' off to my left was a thing of beauty; Sharp edges, smooth curves, and sleek deadly weapons. I smiled behind my oxygen mask, knowing that I was also flying one of those planes. The BAF, Belkan Air Force, had decided to pair me up with Rainer Altman, a former ace of the Belkan War, and now referred to as Gelb 1. I was Gelb 2; although I had the feeling I could outmanoeuvre him. I was about four year younger then he was, and for a fighter pilot, a simple difference in age can mean a world of difference.

I checked the positions of the squadron that had been assigned to watch, Wizard Squadron. I easily saw their four F-16XLs on my radar, but I had a harder time seeing the YF-23s because of their stealth capabilities.

"AWACS, where are the Wizard Squadron Black Widows? I can't find 'em on my radar."

"Bearing Three-Four-Zero, high. Distance: 1.5 miles. Over." AWACS SkyEye replied.

I looked in that direction, and sure enough, I saw them: four black specks a mile and a half away. Right where they were supposed to be.

The mission was to simply fly around, out of range of ground-based fire, and observe the city defences. So far, the defences included several small-scale tactical nukes, and a fleet of ships identified as 'Battlecurisers'. We could easily have taken out the nukes, but the Battlecurisers were another story entirely. They were large, heavily armoured and they packed A LOT of firepower. More then enough to bring each of us down in only a few shots.

"Gelb Squadron, Wizard Squadron," the AWACS said as we began another pass of the city. "We've detected several military aircraft inbound on vector 090 at ten miles, closing fast. Believed to be new-type hostile aircraft. Please confirm and set weapons for Condition Tango. Over."

_GREAT!_ I thought. Condition Tango was the new Soviet term for 'Fire only if fired upon'. That was one of the worst conditions for a pilot going into possible combat because it meant that the other guy had a free first shot. The bogeys were in sight now, and with my sharp eyes, I saw that there were only six of them, and I could make out that they looked very similar to the Protoss Scout fighters. Although they may sound like they were just for recon, they were actually heavily armed high-speed fighters that were estimated to be as good, if not better then, the SU-37 'Terminator'.

The enemy fighters closed so fast that I almost missed them when they passed right through out formation, and went onto our six. The one trailing me triggered the missile lock, and I jinked hard to avoid it.

Veronica Barns

Central Zerg base, Planet Char

0610 Hours Local

Eventually, after a while of slithering, I made it out of the Zerg base, but my wounds were getting to be a bit too much for me to stay awake. It wasn't that they hurt, far from it, but it was the simple fact of blood loss that was doing me in. I was getting tired and taking in more ragged breaths trying to fight off shock. Suddenly, I was wracked with immense pain as something heavy and fast-moving slammed into me.

I was thrown back from the sudden impact and I heard some kind of unnatural squealing sound, then a few clunking noises. Too dazed to even see straight, I tired feebly to lash out at what had just hit me, and then I heard: "Holy shit! That's the biggest one you've ever hit Charley! It's the biggest one I've ever seen!"

"I've seen bigger, trust me kid." There was pause, then: "hmm… this thing looks like it's about to become a Hunter-Killer. Must have killed a helluva lot of things in its lifetime and seen a lot of battles. We should take it in to be studied."

"Are you sure that's a good idea, boss? This thing seems to be still alive, and if it's gonna become an HK soon, shouldn't we kill it?"

"Still too young, if we study this thing, then we can make a bio-weapon that'll kill off ALL Hydras. Normal or HKs. We take this thing in, got it?"

"Yessir, I'll make some room on the truck bed."

I heard some clanging sounds, and eventually: "okay, drag that thing over here and let's get the hell outta here! This place is makin' me nervous."

I dimly recall being dragged slowly onto something, and then I started moving even though I was too dazed to do anything more then a reflex action.

Nicky Hammond

Arkbird

70 miles above Basset Space Center, Osea

2311 Hours Local

We had received orders to go back to the Ace Combat Universe to pick up some things from the Mass Driver. It's how we got all our supplies—food, water, and other basic necessities like that—but this time was different. As we went down to the pick-up altitude, I wondered what the SSTO craft would bring us this time. I wondered this as I Changed the wolf in me hating the confined space of the Arkbird, but loving the fact that for once I was experiencing gravity again. Apparently wolves hate being in a Zero G environment. You learn something new everyday I suppose.

Anyways, I heard the dull pinging noise that informed everyone that the SSTO was now safely attached and we could unload its cargo at anytime. It also let the crew of both craft know that in a few minutes, we'd be going back up into space and starting to do a gravity-simulating spin.

I walked over to the cargo bay, and tried to focus my vision enough so I could see what was being unloaded. I smelled food, so I knew that it must have been the weekly re-supply shuttle, but then I also saw a sort black egg-shaped thing being handled with extreme care. I got closer, and saw that as well as that thing, there was the replacement Remora UCAVs.

My focus was on that egg-shaped thing though. I tired to sniff it, but got nothing other then the metallic scent that came with almost everything onboard this spacecraft. Following the people handling the thing through several passageways, they loaded it into a sort of tube. I started to focus on the speech that the crew of the SSTO were saying.

"Okay, that's one of them, where are the other three?"

"Probably being held up by some kind of delay. After all, they're more used to working in XB-0 then in this thing."

"Yeah, that's true. Although what I can't understand is why the XB-0 can't do this. Nukes on the Arkbird? Whatever happened to its clean reputation?"

"That disappeared as soon as the laser got put onto this thing. Besides, you heard the report: the AA defences are too heavy to allow the XB-0 to get close enough to attack the Zerg base, so we gotta hit them from this thing."

Nuclear weapons? HERE? On the Arkbird? My blood ran cold, and I felt a shiver run through my body. Nuclear weaponry that can be used from space was always one of my biggest fears. Now, the SOLG had already actualized that nightmare, but this was completely different. I lived on the Arkbird; the SOLG was just a weapon. A remotely controlled gun in space. But now… I shuddered, and left to see how many bombs were actually going too loaded into my home.


	7. new allies

Captain Felix Graff

Above Korhal, Tarsonis

1502 Hours Local

The enemy planes had now started to engage us, but we didn't know the exact make of those enemies. As such, we couldn't fight against them particularly well. Gelb 1 and I broke off from each other and braced ourselves for an attack. A second later, the high-pitched scream of a missile warning screamed through my headset. I broke hard to the left just in time to see the blue-white contrail of a Protoss Antimatter missile flash past my cockpit no less then 20 feet away.

"AWACS!" I screamed into the headset mike. "The enemy bogey's taken a shot at me! Requesting permission to engage!"

"Wait one while we confirm, over." The AWACS voice came back, calmly.

"Brick! Tag them!" Gelb 1 ordered. "We'll get a lock while we're waiting for those bastards!"

I did as I was told, and got a lock of four of them with my XLAAs, and the remaining two were locked on by Gelb 1's QAAMs. I kept my finger on the missile launch button, but I didn't press it down until I had confirmation for the AWACS.

"Gelb Squadron, your request for weapons release is denied. Repeat: Denied. That missile may have been fired by one of the Wizard Squadron YF-23s, can you confirm? Over."

Another missile flashed passed. Screw this, I thought angrily and launched four of my XLAAS on two enemy fighters. The enemy fighters, aware that they were being attacked now, started to break off and try to evade my missiles, but the angle was perfect. Both of the first missiles hit and took down the craft's shields while one of the second missiles smashed open the cockpit of one of the enemy craft causing it to erupt in a fireball as the energy the craft used for power went unstable and tore the craft apart. The other missile, arrowing for a lead pursuit demolished a port-side wing and the enemy craft began to spin uncontrollably towards the ground.

"YOU SPLASHED AN ENEMY WITHOUT PREMISSION TO ENGAGE!?" The AWACS roared. "WHAT ARE YOU THINKING GELB 2!?"

"I'll get back to you," I said calmly as I fired another set of missiles at two of the remaining four enemy planes. Locking on, I mashed down the missile launch button, and the two sidewinders blasted away, seeking their targets. The enemy craft started to do a dive, trading altitude for airspeed afterburners going full blast, normally not a good idea when being perused by a heat-seeker, but I suppose this guy thought he could outrun my missiles.

He didn't, and the two missiles slammed into his craft one shorting out the shields, the other doing heavy damage to the engines causing him to pull up, trailing smoke. He tried to turn and engage me, but his manoeuvrability was restricted and he could only manage broad, slow, almost leisurely turns in either direction. He must have decided to break off the fight so he wouldn't end up like his two buddies that I had shot down.

Wizard Squadron's YF-23s closed and engaged the remaining fighters. With their stealth capabilities, they were easily more then a match for our opponents and each one died in blue explosions as they exploded. After that, the rest of the mission was complete anticlimax. The recon mission went off without any more hitches, although when we landed back in base, we were immideantly called into the Supreme Commander's Office.

Supreme Commander Boris Romanov

Office of the Commander

Base Alpha, Shakuras

2100 Hours Local

Leaning back in my chair, I gazed levelly at the four pilots standing stiff at attention. One was the number 2 in Gelb Squadron; the other three were from Wizard Squadron, including the flight lead Joshua Bristow.

"So" I said my voice low and dangerous. "Are you four going to tell me what that was all about up there, or just stare at my office walls?" I knew they weren't looking at me, but rather on a spot of wood panelling somewhere behind my left shoulder. I pointed to Captain Graff, Gelb's number two. "Let's start with you, mister. You violated the Rules of Engagement on at least thee points: you went below the hard deck of 2000 feet, you shot missiles off first, and you engaged with Protoss fighters and shot six of them down. What do you have to say for yourself?"

"Sir, those weren't Protoss fighters. They were modified variants of the Scouts, yes, but those modifications were of Terran design. A normal Scout wouldn't have even been hurt by the normal sidewinder missiles. Our missile took down their shields completely. As for going below the hard deck, I had to position myself that way because I was dogfighting, sir. And for shooting, they shot first. You can confirm it with Gelb 1, or anyone else here that that's exactly what happened."

I glanced at the other pilots, and they each nodded. Glancing back at Captain Graff, I said: "very well, THIS time, I'll just leave this as an ass-chewing. NEXT time," I made a sour face. "You had better make DAMMED sure there isn't another time, got me?"

"Yes sir," he said.

"Go back to your quarters."

"Sir, yes, sir!"

The four pilots left and I asked the crew of SkyEye to hand over all mission records of the enemy contacts. I had a feeling I was about to discuss things with Zeratul. I sighed to myself. _Why is it always MY headache?_

Veronica Barnes

Undisclosed location

0345 Hours Local

I opened my eyes in some kind of vat filled with some kind of deep ultramarine blue-ish sort of liquid. I tried to move, but quickly realised that I was being pumped full of some kind of drug that limited my movement to only a few simple twitches. Eventually, I sorted out the jumble of memories from what had happened as I was running away from Kerrigan. Some truck had come out of nowhere, slammed into me, and I had been taken here… wherever HERE was.

My head hurt so much, but I couldn't really do anything against the pain. _Owww… my head… _I thought. Focusing my vision and hearing, I managed to see through the glass of the vat, and into the room. Several people stopped suddenly, and drew their guns.

"Who said that?" one of them asked. I recognized him as 'Charley' from the truck.

Another one of the guards shook his head. "Hell if I know, sir, but I could have sworn that it was some Protoss."

_Protoss? _I thought. _Why would they let Protoss into here? And what are they going to do with me? _

"There it is again!" Charley yelled.

There was a pause, and then one of the people looked at me.

"Uhh, Sir, call me crazy, but I think it's that Hydralisk talking to us!"

I concentrated to actually form words, and 'said': "you mean you can hear this?"

The guards looked baffled as to the very CONCEPT of a Hydralisk talking, but they all nodded.

"So… what are you planning to do with me? if you're going to dissect me or something, just get it over with. Nothing you can do could be worse then what I already went through."

"What do you mean? You're a Zerg, you don't feel pain!"

I sighed, bubbles coming out of my mouth. "I didn't used to be like this. I used to be human, but then some Zerg Matriarch swooped down and infested Me." and I began to explain what had happened to me.

Once I was finished, the people just looked at me as though I was insane, but a second later, they reconsidered, and eventually the liquid in the vat drained, and the glass retracted. As soon as it was, I fell onto the floor with a loud 'crash!' getting my muscles stretched I thanked the people there, and I asked for the closest exit door. If I was stuck in this body, then I might as well make the most of it. I was going to go back to the Hive Cluster, and tear Kerrigan apart myself.

One of the guards seemed so sense my plan, and he stepped in front of me. "I'm sorry, but I can't let you go out and fight Kerrigan."

I snarled, and said: "why not? I've got nothing better to do."

"Listen, Kerrigan has decimated hundreds of our forces, and she's not even taken a scratch from any of our attacks. Hell, she even somehow survives nuclear bombardment!"

"Look, I'm going, and that's final! If you really want to stop me, shoot me."

He didn't, he just stood in the way, and I considered pushing him aside and going on to attack her, but something held me back. A few seconds later, it hit me: I could see automated defences or at least, where they would come out and attack me. I sighed, making the Hydralisk's body shudder, and then I said: "What do you suggest then?"

"Train. Get better at fighting like this and hopefully even turn into a Hunter-Killer. Then, you might have a chance to fight her."

My brain knew exactly what a Hunter-Killer was: a more powerful version of the normal Hydralisk; carapace as hard as titanium, scythes that can cut through just about anything, needle spines that could easily down a full-grown elephant in a single hit, and they were ferocious. Only the evolved Zerglings, called Devouring Ones beat the Hunter-Killer. Thinking about it for a second, I reluctantly agreed and followed the person into a training room.

"Oh and, by the way," I said. "I didn't catch your name."

"Roberto Mendoza," he said.


	8. the Death of Kerrigan

Chapter eight

Nicky Hammond

Arkbird

150 miles above Char

0410 Hours Local

After Changing back, (a very tricky thing to do in Zero Gravity) I went to ask the chief military officer about the nuclear weapons that had been loaded. He told me that we were going to use them to bomb a Zerg Base. The reason the SOLG couldn't do that was because it was being deployed to maintain superiority over Shakuras. Plus, there were several Terran bases nearby, and I misfire from the SOLG would cause massive collateral damage. The Arkbird had an extremely powerful targeting system so we could plant bombs with mush more efficiency then the SOLG ever could.

Shrugging, I was forced to agree with that, and went to take my post. Like the laser, when the Arkbird had nuclear weapons, I could also manually control where they would go. For a target of this importance, I wouldn't risk the automatic release system. Computers, despite however advanced they are, can make mistakes.

Taking my position, I switched on an external view, and saw the Zerg Base far below me. I switched on the targeting system for the nuclear weapons, and armed two of the four warheads. After getting clearance from the Chief military Officer, I was ready to drop the payload. At falling speeds of over Mach 6, the warheads would be nearly unstoppable, and undetectable. Once the computer gave me a solid lock, I mashed the release switch down as hard as I could. From where I was, the drop was imperceptible, but I knew that the two 10 megaton each nuclear warheads were now falling towards the planet.

Veronica Barns

Terran Base, Char

1400 Hours Local

My training was going pretty easily. I could now move more gracefully, and I was also getting pretty good at using my scythes and needle spines. Strange, I only had my new Hydralisk body for a few days, and already, it felt perfectly natural. I was hunting for my own dinner (as I could have probably eaten the Terrans out of house and home in a day or so) when I felt a massive headache! Doubling over from the pain, I snarled, and a few seconds later, it cleared.

The new Zerg part of my brain figured it out faster then I could: the hive had been attack. Hard. Only one thing my brain knew of could make a threat warning: a nuclear weapon had been dropped onto the Hive Cluster!

Snarling, I got up, made my kill and headed back to the base. When I got there, I looked up at the sky, and saw a second nuclear bomb heading down, trailing fire as though it was a missile! The second bomb hit even harder then the first and my headache returned with a vengeance forcing me down, and causing convulsions as though I was having a seizure. The Overmind's 'Voice' boomed into my head, ordering me to protect the Hive from whatever was attacking it, but I fought it off, and went inside the base.

When I went inside, the people there were in a panic from the nuclear blasts, but they seemed to pretend like I wasn't there. To this day, I still wonder how they managed to NOT see a nine-meter tall Hydralisk… apparently, the nuclear weapons had come from high orbit over the planet, and I knew what that meant: either the Arkbird or the SOLG had launched them. Normal nuclear missiles simply went into sub-orbital flight once they launched, meaning that they were still in the atmosphere, but close to space.

I got Roberto to help me finish my training, and once I was ready, I went to fight the Queen of Blades. Before I left, the base personnel wished me luck, and I knew that I'd need it. By then, I was getting used to seeing myself like this, and the Hydralisk, now a Hunter-Killer, felt natural; as though I had been born this way. The Zerg parts of my brain were now almost fully meshed with the human parts, and now I could easily recall any of the pooled memories they had, every one of the encounters the Zerg had faced, every battle tactic that had ever been used by the Cerebrates, every weak point for every Zerg species, and much more.

Once I got into the Hive Cluster, or at least what was left of it, the radiation hit me, and it hurt a bit, but for the most part I ignored it, and I went to find Kerrigan. I could still sense her presence, so I knew she was still alive. Throwing my head back, I let out a roar that only my new body could produce: a distinct battle-cry that could come from only a Hunter-Killer. Kerrigan would be able to identify it easily, and once she heard that, she'd come to me.

An Overlord floated over to where I was, trying to see what the fuss was all about, but I opened my chest cavity and blasted its eyes and other sensory organs with the more powerful spines. It screamed it pain, and crashed to the ground where I then proceeded to hack it apart forcing some of the nearby Zerg to go out of control for a few seconds, but the Cerebrate took direct control a few seconds later.

Eventually, I saw HER. She grinned, and said: so, you've come back for more?" she grinned, and said: "I've been improving, hopefully, you'll be a more satisfying toy then last time."

I snarled and said: "so have I, and this time, I'm going to kill you."

She laughed. "Is that so? Well, normally, I let my minions do my fighting for me, but I just gotta see what you got!"

I snarled and lunged!

Nicky Hammond

Arkbird

150 miles above Char

0415 Hours Local

as I was watching the display, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Kerrigan and a Hunter-Killer were fighting, and pretty fiercely too from what I could tell. For a second, I thought the sensitive real-time camera feed was malfunctioning, but after doing several diagnostic tests, I knew that it was really happening.

I turned on my communicator and got a hold of Chief Military Officer a few seconds later.

"Chief," I asked. "You're not going to believe this, but I think the Zerg down there are going berserk. A Hunter-Killer's fighting Kerrigan as we speak. I've ran several full diagnostic tests, and none of them show any flaws."

"You're right, I DON'T believe you. Hang on, I'm coming." He replied.

A few seconds later, he drifted into the control Room of the Arkbird and I let him take the scope so he could see what was going on below. After a few minuets, he said: "hmm… must be a rival Cerebrate attacking her. Either that or that Psi Disrupter thing is active again. Stay on it, let me know of any developments, but don't get involved."

"Affirmative sir," I said nodding. And I went back to the viewing screen.

Veronica Barns

Primary Hive Cluster, Char

My lunge attack missed, but I managed to graze Kerrigan's face with a Needle Spine that I had managed to fire at the same time. She was using her wing-like bones to attack me now and I kept blocking with my two Scythes. i didn't notice that the Hunter-Killer's reflexes were a hell of a lot better then my own, but I didn't really care just then. All that mattered was don't get hit.

I swung my right scythe as hard as I could at Kerrigan's waist, hoping to get off a lucky hit that she couldn't evade, but it was a bit difficult because of the height difference between us. I missed, she went behind me and started to try and jam her claw-like wings into my spine, or at least what I assumed to BE my spine. Anyways, I saw what she was about to do, and I turned sharply, blasting Needle Spines all over the place. One hit her in the kneecap, forcing her down, another in the left side, and a final hit to her right Wing-bone, knocking it off in a single hit from the sheer kinetic energy.

Getting up, she seemed to be pissed. The air suddenly cracked around me, and I knew that she was preparing a psionic attack of some kind. My Zerg brain knew what to do almost before I did, and I burrowed in less then a second, causing the blow to miss by a generous margin before I popped back up, and delivered a massive blow to her left side with one sweep of the dull side of my left blade. I heard a distinct 'Oomph!' as the wind was knocked out of her.

Before she could get up, I started stabbing away at the general area she was in with my scythes, hoping to get a lucky hit and impale her, but she kept moving from side to side without giving me an opportunity to attack. Roaring in rage and frustration, I blasted her with another volley of Needle Spines, and this time, I scored a lucky hit right on her stomach. I could smell the concentrated Stomach acid already begin to eat away her flesh, and from my training, I knew that stomach wounds can last for HOURS in agony as the body's own acid dissolved them.

Kerrigan didn't seem to phased by the pain, if she was feeling any. Instead, she got up, placed one finger to the wound, and said: "Nice shot, but that won't be enough to stop me."

"No, but it's a start!" I yelled, as I slashed again and again with my twin blades, giving her very little room to evade. With each of her seeming near misses, I caught a whiff of blood, and knew that I was hitting her. After a few seconds of this, I stopped, blood soaking my scythes and she propped herself up against a rock, bleeding from the many cuts and wounds across her body.

Panting, she managed to say: "Wow… I never expected you to beat me. But you won't kill me. You're still to HUMAN," she spat that last word out like a curse, along with a bit of blood. "if you were any kind of Zerg, you'd have killed me by now. You'll never be a part of the great Swarm. You're NOTING. A Freak of nature, a genetic experiment gone wrong, a—"

I decapitated her in one swipe before she could insult me any further. She was wrong: I WAS a Zerg. I COULD have been a part of the Swarm… IF I wanted to, but I CHOSE not to. That made me stronger then she was. I had fought the Overmind's will, and I didn't let it break me. that and I had killed the 'Queen of Blades'. She would never pose a threat to anybody ever again.

Finding myself quite exhausted, I more or less sat down, and took a few deep breaths. Once I caught my breath, I noticed that all the Zerg around me were standing there, as if waiting for something. They all looked at me expectantly, and I gave them what they were waiting for: an extremely loud roar and throwing my left scythe into the air. A show of dominance to the lesser Zerg, and letting them all know that I was their new leader.

And a good thing too, because there was still ONE last thing that I had to do. Or at least, I was SURE there was one thing I had to do, but for the life of me, I couldn't figure out what it was.

Once again, the Zerg part of my brain came to the rescue: Kill the Overmind. Grinning at this objective, I mentally broadcasted it to every Zerg in the area, telling them to get ready for war.


	9. Battle of Korhal

Chapter Nine

Supreme Commander Romanov

Base Theta, Tarsonis

1050 Hours Local

I was discussing the battle plans for our attack to liberate Korhal and the Terran Dominion to the troops that would be taking part in the massive operation. The attack would go down in three phases, each codenamed; Operation Python, Cobra and Manta. Manta would strike first, comprising of the First and Second PLA Infantry battalion, and the 56th, and 61st PLA Tank divisions. Their mission was to take out the Anti-Aircraft defences around the city and take down the defenders.

Python would attack next, comprising of several fighter wings including Gualt, Gelb, Mobius, Razgriz, Schnee and Galm. Their mission was to mostly establish air superiority over the city of Korhal and help to liberate the city by providing Close-Air Support (or CAS) to the ground forces.

Cobra would be the last phase of the plan, and possibly the most important. Cobra would be comprised of the 4th Fleet Spetsnaz Brigade, and the 172nd Chrono Corps. These were Special Forces that would move in and take the 'Emperor' himself. Once inside his palace, the Spetsnaz would distract the internal defences while the Chrono Troops made there way up to his office, and executed him. Once the defenders saw that their leader was dead, they would give up resisting and cooperate with us.

All the forces involved in the operation understood the battle plan, and they were ready and willing to do it. I wished them all the best of luck, and then went into the Command Center where I could see everything that went on via satellite uplink. Once I was inside, I checked my watch; almost 1130 Hours. Operation Manta was scheduled to take place at exactly 1200 Hours, but there were a fair amount of combat preparations to do before anybody could relax.

The aircraft from Schnee Squadron would be taking off from an airbase as well, simply because there wasn't a body of water large enough to house a Nimitz-Class Supercarrier. Shcnee Squadron would be the last squadron that would be launched because all the other squadrons had larger fuel reserves so they could remain airborne for a few minutes, take a quick refill at a tanker aircraft, and then begin the mission once all the aircraft were airborne.

Captain Felix Graff

Above Korhal, Tarsonis

1200 Hours Local

Operation Manta hit so hard and so unexpectedly that only the handfuls of people on watch were able to respond, but those few were quickly overrun by the first strike wave. Manta was successful, and now it was time to begin Python. I dove in on the city, afterburners blazing side-by-side with Gelb 1 shooting missiles off at just about anything military. Now the air raid sirens were going off, but the defenders were still too slow, our planes too fast to hope to shoot us all down.

Schnee Squadron was providing top cover along with Galm and Gualt, while Mobius Squadron and Razgriz were attacking the ground facilities like we were doing. Not the pattern that I would use for the mission, but then again, I wasn't in charge of the strike, so I had no authority to question the orders. I took a quick glance at my radar, and saw that several enemy fighters were closing in on our position.

"Gelb 1," I said. "I see several enemy fighters inbound and closing rapidly. Request permission to detach from formation."

"Roger that, Gelb 2." Came the reply a few seconds later. "Go take care of them."

I broke from formation, and launched four XLAAs at the approaching fighters, although there were too many of them to hope for a clean sweep. Unless I somehow caught two or more of the bandits in the same fireball, but the chances of that happening are remote. The missiles blasted away and steered straight towards the incoming enemies. They were closer now and after squinting my eyes to confirm them, I identified them as the standard Wraith Fighters.

The lead missile hit the first enemy fighter who then exploded in a black-and-orange fireball, leaving no chance for an ejection. The other fighters started to manoeuvre, but my missile's aim was perfect. Three more of the fighters died in fireballs, two of them trailing fire and then exploding when they crashed into a nearby building. The remaining fighters began to cloak, but I kept firing at them because although they disappeared from sight, they still showed up on my radar, and my heat-seeking missiles loved their hot engine exhaust.

Tailing one of the enemy enemies now, I begun to go up close, wanting to get a gun kill instead of a missile kill. The radar lock-on was still activated, but that was to simply help me track him. After a while, I found that perfect kill position of slightly above and behind him and from less then 900 feet away, i mashed the firing control button for the gun, and it instantly screamed white death at 4000 rounds per minute. For a moment, the enemy craft seemed to absorb those globes of light, then its cloaking fell away and it exploded in a fireball a few seconds later.

Smiling to myself as I rode through the fireball, I knew I was going to get a medal once I got back. That was my 50th kill with my guns, so I would be getting the Sharpshooter award. Now Mobius and Razgriz Squadrons were coming in to help, and they both let off salvos of missiles.

To say that it would have been hard to evade all those missiles would be an understatement. With Mobius and Razgriz Squadrons, it was nearly impossible to evade all those shots, and at least ten more planes died in fiery eruptions. That was when things started to get hard because over the horizon, our radars showed twelve massive blobs on them. There was only one thing that could ever be that massive: the Leviathan-Class Battlecurisers.

As soon as the AWACS relayed the orders to us, we were off to engage the new targets. I let the other three squadrons know about these monsters, and soon, we were all of flying as one big formation armed to take down these things. As soon as we got within range, everybody who had them fired their Long-Range missiles at the approaching threats. They were so huge that even from over 120 miles away, they were still visible and slowly getting larger.

The missiles closed in on the behemoths at speeds easily exceeding Mach eight, and finally slammed into them with enough force that despite the distance, one of the Battlecurisers that we had concentrated our missile fire on had shaken as though it had been slapped by a massive hand. We fired off another volley of missiles, and we kept waiting for them to come and engage us. It would be tough to dogfight these things, but not impossible. Their weapons stations could easily be destroyed, and if we shot them in the engine, we could easily bring them down.

IF we could get within range of them. Specs of these ships had indicated that they had the capability to fire a mini-nuclear device known as a 'Yammato Cannon' at extremely long ranges. After a while of pummelling them (and seeing a few of them go down) they got within range for us to attack with our normal missiles. But compared to our Long-Range missiles, our normal sidewinders were like mosquito bites to them.

Instead of attacking the Cruisers themselves, I went to try something smarter: attack their engines. Without those, they'd simply fall right out of the sky. The same tactic was used with the XB-0 and the Arkbird, so I had a feeling it'd work this time too. Getting behind the lead Battlecuriser, I fired straight into the four engines. Bracing myself for an explosion, the missiles sprinted the short distance to the engines, and promptly exploded. At first, I saw nothing, but then I saw explosions coming from the back of the ship and I realised that I must have hit some kind of vital weak point in the armour because it seem as though the ammo stores for the Yammato cannon were exploding!

The explosions consumed the wounded ship I had hit, and we all pulled hard to get out of the way of the flaming debris. Our fighters made it because of their high manoeuvrability and high speed, but the cruisers weren't so lucky. A final explosion, more powerful then anything that had come before it slammed the entire airspace with a brilliant flash. For a terrified instant, I wondered if I had set off some kind of nuclear weapon, but the AWACS calmed me down slightly.

"Wow! That was I direct hit! What an explosion! We can even see it from here! It looks as though the power plant for that thing had an uncontrolled reaction. No radiation that we can detect, but it seemed to have some nuclear proprieties."

I tapped the microphone twice, acknowledging the message, and I we went to engage the remaining cruisers. Now that we knew how to beat them, we could easily do it. Besides, we had time to do this. Operation Python was finished, and now it was the final stage of the mission, Cobra. Although, we still had to protect the ground forces from these things.

That was getting easier because there weren't many of them left. Only about three survived untouched from the explosions, four of them had gotten caught in the explosion, and were destroyed, while the rest were in varying degrees of damage some from light damage, others were damaged to the point where they were going to go down to the ground one way or another in the next thirty seconds.

Changing my tactics, I went for the bridge of the most unscarred ship I could find, and I blasted away at it with my missiles. Hopefully, that'd mess up their steering, weapons and just about everything else. My missiles hit, and they didn't seem to do much damage, but I heard alarm sounds over my radio and panicked radio chatter saying that they were crashing. I noticed that a few hanger bays onboard the ship was opening and I saw my opportunity. I got into position, and fired two QAAM missiles into the open bay.

Seconds later, there was an explosion and the majority of the hanger bay was engulfed in flames of furiously burning fuel and weapons. Wounded, the great ship began to fall towards the ground slowly at first, but it gradually picked up speed until it crashed with enough force to send several boulders that were visible from the air flying from the shockwave.

"Damn Brick!" First Lieutenant Elena Michaels said after seeing my performance. "Save some for the rest of us! It looks like you just trashed the whole Dominion army!"

"Hey Gelb 2," Mobius 1 said. "You're making lotta money today. Looks like drinks are on you when we get back."

After downing the rest of the ships, we all headed for home. Once we all landed, we all went to a pilot's bar where our Squadron Adjunct announced our kill records for the day. Despite the Battlecruiser's sheer size, I only got one kill for each of the ones I had shot down. Not that fair mind you, but what are you gonna do? Anyways, after seeing my kill record exceed Gelb 1's be three kills, I knew I was getting better.

I was congratulated by numerous pilots and other personnel that saw the attack from the ground. The attack on the capitol had goon exactly according to plan, the defenders had fled moments after the death of their leader and after Operation Cobra, the rest of the battle was anticlimax. Several modified Battlecurisers were also converging these ones equipped very similarly to the Protoss Carriers, but by the time they had come within range of the capitol, Stonehenge rounds were going off in the sky and those massive sitting ducks literally never had a chance. Their escorts turned back even before the massive ships collapsed onto the ground before exploding in a spectacular funeral pyre that rivalled that of the exploding Battlecurisers that we faced off against.

Prisoners were now being taken from those few soldiers who had tried to run instead of surrender and now our forces were on the way to overrunning the entire Dominion from the seat of power and government itself. Although only a handful of people resisted the change in government. In fact over 95 of the entire Dominions population according to Yuri were actually HAPPY with the change.

Although, there was one last lose end to tie up: the Zerg Overmind. Zeratul had earlier explained that to kill it, we'd need several Dark Templar to do it, as only their energies could truly harm the Zerg. Although we had picked up something troubling: a nearby Zerg Brood was gathering up its forces as if in preparation for an attack. The Arkbird had pounded the area earlier, but it seemed as though some of the forces had survived the blast, and the ones that did were like no other Zerg any of us had ever seen. It seemed as though they had some kind of evolved Ultralisk of some kind along with what looked to be giant spiders of some kind.

The planning for that mission would take place after we had recuperated our forces from this mission before we went onto this next one.


	10. preperations

Chapter Ten

Veronica Barns

Main Zerg Base

Planet Char

1200 Hours Local

It took a bit of organizing, and a few large headaches, but I finally set up a few Cerebrates to take command of my army. We were finally ready to attack the Overmind. My forces had also taken a few evolutions of their own now allowing Lurkers to attack targets even above ground and now Zerglings had better carapace so they could take more enemy attacks. We were about to advance when suddenly, a beam of light fell from the sky!

Roaring, I mentally ordered the drones to keep gathering, and for the hatcheries to produce scourge. Once they hatched, I ordered them to attack whatever was firing on us. They never made it to their target. Now several enemy fighters were flying overhead shooting down anything they saw. I quickly ordered my Overlords to land because where they were; they'd be sitting ducks for the planes. Now Protoss were showing up, and their Dark Templars were cutting through my army with ease.

Seeing that, I burrowed and went into a sort of trance to see if I could access the radio transmissions. I got a hold of something a few times, but I lost it until I eventually got a solid link through. The radio chatter from both the Soviets and the Protoss was pretty quiet, but occasionally, I heard the frantic plea for help and a few 'Bagged one!' calls. After a few seconds of this, I simply ordered every Zerg to stop what it was doing.

"Hey! What's going on?" One of the pilots said. "Why'd they just stop?"

"All units," the Supreme Commander's voice cut in. "The Zerg Colony in your local area has been neutralized. Move on to attack the next target."

"No!" one of the Protoss said. "This base still has Cerebrates nearby… however; they don't seem to be connected to the Overmind. They're connected to something else. Allow us some time to find the source."

"Roger that, Zeratul," the Commander said again. "All units remain on standby until—"

"Commander!" I yelled out telepathically. "These Zerg are mine! I'm currently stuck inside the body of a Hunter-Killer; I'm getting ready to launch an attack on the Overmind! Hold your fire!"

There was a pause then: "Who the hell was that?" the voice sounded like First Lieutenant Michaels, but I couldn't be sure.

"All units, Stand down!" the Commander barked. "Prepare to merge forces with the local Zerg forces in the area and stand by to commence attack on the final target, over."

All the forces acknowledged that, and the firing stopped as though somebody had just hit a button. I popped back up from my hiding place, and tried not to be intimidated by the Dark Templar standing in front of me. Despite the Hydralisk not having natural enemies, I was still afraid because those could kill just about any kind of Zerg, and they'd make them STAY that way.

The Templar was almost my height, and that's saying something for me being in the body of a ten-foot-tall killing machine. We gazed into each other's eyes for a few brief seconds, and then he walked forward, bumping me as he went. I turned my head, watching him depart and then I shook my head and went back to rebuilding my portion of the attack force.

I was later called in for a meeting between the four heads of the operation: the Supreme Commander, Air Force General Malcolm Granger, GLA Toxin General Dr. Thrax, and the Protoss Matriarch Zeratul. After getting washed up so I wouldn't smell like a Zerg base, I managed to get into the meeting room, although the damn door to the briefing room wouldn't open. Needless to say, I got in the harder way and the base maintenance crew STILL haven't figured out if a ten-foot-tall killing machine with human intelligence ripping a solid titanium door off it's hinges classifies as 'Animal damage' under their insurance policy.

Anyways, after I ducked in, squeezing my larger frame through a door designed for humans, I looked at the chairs around the main table, decided against sitting in one of them, and settled for shifting my weight into a comfortable position. Zeratul glared at me, and then swung his gaze over to the Commander.

"How can you let this abomination be a major part of the attack!?" he roared in a psionic voice so loud it hurt my brain. "She is infested to the core and will only be a liability for the assault!"

The Commander was calm and said: "it might interest you to know that Ms Barns here has single-handedly assassinated the Queen of Blades. We have video proof of that, in fact, CABAL; would you show us the footage from that fight?"

CABAL's face appeared on the screen overlooking the whole room, and then what seemed to be footage taken from a passing airplane showed me and Kerrigan fighting for the second time. There was no sound, but I clearly remembered what there was to hear. After it ended with me slicing off her head, I asked: "How did you get that? There wasn't anybody around for miles!"

The Commander's face remained expressionless. "That footage was from the Arkbird, and it hasn't been altered or enhanced in any way. Zeratul, if I didn't trust Ms Barns to be a major part of the attack, why would I even let her in here in the first place?"

"Very well," he said sharply. "But if she gets taken over by the Overmind, don't expect my warriors to help yours in any way."

"I won't get controlled by the Overmind." I said. It's tried to take over me since I was first infested, and it didn't succeed. In fact, I've now shut myself and my forces out from its wills, so my forces should be safe."

General Granger spoke next. "All right everyone, enough. Let's get back to planning this thing."

The Commander nodded, and motioned to Dr. Thrax for him to begin his portion of the briefing.

"Very well Commander," he said, slightly muffled by the cloth from his turban. "After Ms Barns went into medical, I started studying Zerg tissue, and I think I have come up with a virus that only affects them. I WAS going to test it in this attack, but I think I'll keep it on standby now that Ms Barns is here. If I was correct in the formulas, it should kill her in about three seconds after first exposure."

"Is it airborne?" I asked, wanting to know as much as possible about this new weapon as possible.

Thrax nodded. "Yes, but I have had problems controlling its duration. My estimate is that if released onto any battlefield, that area wouldn't be habitable for Zerg for days."

I knew what that meant: it was extremely deadly and powerful to its target, but it didn't last very long before the virus broke down and became useless. That was Mother Nature's way of keeping Thrax in check. Stable diseases weren't lethal, and deadly ones burned out too quickly to be useful for a length of time.

Slightly relieved, Thrax moved on to a less potent, but still deadly strain that seemed to kill only the basic Zerg units. I was a Hunter-Killer, so I'd be safe, but the majority of my forces would die except my evolved units and my air power. I went on using that strain instead, and everyone seemed to agree. (Well, everyone except Zeratul who just kept glaring at me.)

Eventually, we got the attack planned out and it would go down in a series of steps. My forces would be the first wave to alert the Zerg to the attack and draw out their numbers. My Hydralisks and Defilers would provide a very effective anti-aircraft net while my other ground forces distracted their ground forces. Then Thrax would release his bio-toxin killing whatever was left of the ground forces with the exception of evolved units and his toxic troops would then emerge from their hiding places and attack. General Granger would then take his aircraft and establish air superiority over the entire battlefield and finally, the Dark Templar would come in and destroy the Overmind and its Cerebrates once and for all. The Commander would keep the bulk of his forces back, while at the same time, launching Superweapon strikes from the Hrimfaxi submerged in one of the few open areas of water on the planet and the one closest to the battlefield.

Finally, after a while, it seemed everybody was ready, and the next day at 0600 Hours, my forces would advance.

Nicky Hammond

Arkbird

130 kilometres above Planet Char

1401 Hours Local

When my orders came through that the Arkbird would not be participation in the fight, to say that I was angry would have been an understatement. The Zerg were RIGHT THERE easily within our sights either with the laser, or with the two remaining nuclear bombs we carried. When I let the chief military officer explain, I relented slightly. Apparently, several high-ranking members of other military divisions would be personally taking part in the operation, and the Superweapon strikes may accidentally hit them. Add that to the constant problem of the Hrimfaxi's Burst Missiles, an orbital laser would be another problem to worry about, let alone the nukes.

I sighed and went to the control center for the Arkbird and deactivated the laser. _Well,_ I though. _Maybe this would be a good time to do diagnostics on the whole ship. Yeah, that'll give me something to do._ Using the Arkbird heavily might have slightly damaged something, some outer hull panel, and if permitted to spread, then we'd be done for. Better go out and look at everything NOW and not regret taking this time later.


	11. the defeat of the Zerg

Chapter Eleven

Supreme Commander Romanov

Hrimfaxi

Planet Char

0600 Hours Local

This was it! The complete and total elimination of the Zerg threat forever. The Hrimfaxi had only minutes ago submerged and was waiting to fire its Burst Missiles in case they were needed, as well as launching various fighter aircraft of its own for the mission. UCAV drones, each small, fast, and extremely manoeuvrable, they looked almost like manta rays with upturned wingtips. The UCAVs would launch along with General Granger's aircraft that would wait for the word to come in from Captain Barns that the bio-toxin that Dr. Thrax had produced was working as it should. I took my seat and opened up a holographic display of the combat area that came directly from the Arkbird.

Now, I could easily command the whole operation from the safety of the Hrimfaxi at depth because no Zerg could dive down to the depth where they would be able to attack us. And even if they COULD dive down to our depth, they would have to get through the giant Squids, Allied Attack Dolphins and escort submarines surrounding as I watched the live satellite feed, I saw the friendly Zerg Forces, who before the mission were told to 'evolve' so that on their backs, they had a large, bright pink 'V', advance on the Overmind's position. If reports were accurate, then this would be one nasty fight for the first few minutes before the toxin hit.

The Overmind's forces were now popping out of their hiding places now, each of them rapidly advancing on our forces. The two armies met, and it was almost like watching a movie that took place before the advent of firearms and cannons, how the two massive armies would run at each other in almost a gigantic wave. That was what it looked like, only infinitely larger because of the Zerg reliance of superior numbers. Now the battle had officially begun.

Veronica Barns

Near Primary Hive Cluster, Char

0610 Hours Local

As soon as the Ultralisks charged, I knew that anything smaller then them would be trampled to death in seconds. My forces were now blurs of motion, hacking at their counterparts in a wild frenzy, killing anything in the general area. However, despite my forces zeal, the Overmind's forces were no match for my troops because it had so many of them, and more were being hatched by the second. I HAD to hold this ground long enough for the bio-weapon to be deployed, so I kept fighting.

Some wild Zergling had came flying over to my position and right in mid-air, I shot it full of needle spines, and then I moved onto the next target. This one was another Hunter-Killer like myself. Getting into a battle position, I swung, and it attacked at the same time, in almost the exact same way. Our scythes locked together, as we both tried to knock the other off-balance and go in for the kill. Finally, I had an idea. It may have been technically cheating, but in a war, the only rule of combat is to survive.

I opened my chest cavity, and blasted my opponent with a shower of spines at point-blank range. it reared back, screeching in pain, and I took my shot yanking my scythes free with a screech that almost sounded like metal on metal, and stabbed the creature in the gut, or at least where it should have been, and then rotate my scythes 90 degrees before pulling it out and letting the Hunter-Killer fall to the ground, dead.

The Overmind, engaged at this, sent out its best unit: the Torrasque. Basically, a large, mutated Ultralisk that was nearly unstoppable to most bases. It came for me, and charged, going at its full speed of over 67 kilometres per hour. I burrowed just before it hit me, and as it was passing over me, obviously confused as to where I had disappeared to, I popped up and slashed at its hind legs. It roared in pain and shock, and then began to try and turn around, but because of its bulk, it couldn't do that very quickly.

I on the other hand had the advantage of speed and mobility on my side, although I knew that so much as one hit from those massive tusks that it used to attack, and I was done for. So, I did the first thing that popped into my mind: waiting for the right opportunity, I jumped and managed to land squarely on its back. Realising where I was after a few seconds, I started hacking away at its back hoping to break the spinal cord, or at least nail a large nerve cluster.

After what seemed like an eternity, I finally managed to stab its brain, and felt it gave one last massive shake before it died. I did my best to hop off the dead carcass, and I was about to go and attack the next of the Overmind's best units when something came over me. It almost felt as though I had suddenly entered a cold area of the planet, and as I looked down, I saw that my entire body seemed to be shifting! Not into a Lurker, but into something more powerful then even a Hunter-Killer.

Suddenly, tentacles of some kind burst out from my carapace and start to writhe in all directions while my Needle Spines started to grow and become even more powerful then before. My head frill started growing as well, becoming more and more like a weapon, sharpening at the edges to almost the same mono-molecular style as my scythes, but those were changing too. They weren't scythes anymore, but now full-blown swords, double bladed, and extremely flexible.

Something else burst out of my back, and I screamed in pain as they did so, but that pain quickly subsided. Chancing a quick look back, I saw that they were actually WINGS! Not the boney wing-like appendages Kerrigan had, but full, REAL almost bat-like wings that grew to a sizable length then stopped, and folded themselves to my sides.

I was also being covered in some kind of coating that made my carapace much more shiny, but I had a feeling that wasn't just water, or whatever Zerg perspire. It was toxic, I could tell as one Zergling rushed at me and then promptly dies as it bit into my hide. One final change hit, even worse then all those that had come before it. It felt as though my head was going to explode! Then came things I couldn't even BEGIN to understand. I could actually pinpoint Thrax's forces and I saw one of them holding the bio-weapon about to set it. I could almost 'see' into that soldier's mind: his days as a Freedom Fighter in Vietnam, his capture by the Soviet Union and finally the position in Dr. Thrax's division.

Reeling from this, I tried to push it aside, and fight, but it seemed that my tentacles had taken on a life of their own, grabbing anything that came near me and either simply crushing it, or using their sharp points, stab right through something and… well, I don't know what happened after that, but once the tentacle was clear, the unit it had just attached itself too was blown apart by some kind of internal bomb, and their in the bloody mess were two smaller versions of the Hydralisk that seemed to move at the speed that Zerglings moved and attacked at.

Then, without warning, the hordes of lesser Zerg units just seemed to fall over and die. Both mine and the Overmind's. Good, the bio-weapon must have been detonated successfully, now I could call in the air squadrons.

Captain Felix Graff

Primary Hive Cluster, Char

0630 Hours Local

All of the aces zoomed overhead in the sky, each of us dropping shitloads of bombs on anything unfortunate enough to be caught in the blast. With the remainder of the ground forces gone, we now focused on the remaining air power. I shot off four long-range missiles, and watched as each of those impacted on four different targets and each one of them died. They may have been the evolved Devourers, but it takes a pretty powerful life-form to survive a hit from something going at Mach 7+. Each of the other aces launched whatever they had in way of that, and more of the incoming enemy air power dies. Especially with Cipher and Pixy's lasers and Burst Missiles.

For this mission, I was flying an entirely new aircraft: the XFA-27. My quad missiles were coming in handy as there were simply too many enemies to hope for a clean-sweep with a normal aircraft. Combine that with the Long-Range missiles I had, as well as QAAM missiles, I could easily fight with relative ease, firing missiles off and not waiting for them to reload. Each aircraft was now modified in more or less the same way for this mission, but the XFA-27 excelled at this kind of fighting as it was this plane that had started it in the first place.

Pixy and Cipher went in now to attack the Zerg buildings with their weapons, and seconds later, the base had looked as though a nuclear bomb had hit it. The Burst missiles were spaced so close together that it looked as though the four explosions were instead a single mountainous one. The remaining Hatcheries were annihilated by repeated laser blasts that ripped them apart in seconds.

The Yellow Squadron was also having a bit of fun downing just about anything that got within their firing range, but two of them stood out from the rest: 'Bird Dog' Roy, and 'Tomboy' Nakano. Both of them were werewolves and each of them could now turn, climb, and fight at a limit almost as high as their aircraft's now. The two of them were having a bit of fun taking down the faster, lighter Scourge while the others took down the Mutalisks and Guardians. They didn't stand much of a chance though. With our superior pilots and skills, they never really had a chance to fight back.

Combine that with a new weapon that was now being used by the ground forces, essentially, an AA tank with the capabilities of an AEGIS Cruiser, the enemy fliers were downed as fast as they were picked up on radar. After a while more of fighting and shooting down bogies, the enemy finally seemed to run out of air power. There were occasional things where a rouge overlord tried to take off and escape, but we quickly shot them down.

"All right everyone," I said. "We have achieved near-total air superiority over the battlefield, you can send in the Dark Templars any time now."

The radio handler onboard the AWACS passed that signal onto Zeratul's forces, and they started to move onto the last target: the Overmind and it's Cerebrates. With only a handful of troops that managed to survive the virus, the forces were quickly overrun and they silent assassins made quick work out of the Zerg. We saw that the victory was a total one, and we all flew overhead of the ground forces, each singing our own national anthem. It was made even more glories by the fact that the sun was beginning to rise and the clouds, in one of their rare events parted illuminating the area with undiluted sunlight.

I pulled my plane into a barrel roll just for the sheer hell of it, and went back to base. Once we got back, we received a hell of a lot of praise from others who hadn't been in that fight, and once I got back to my quarters, I just flopped onto the bed and went to sleep.

Supreme Commander Romanov

Animorphs Universe

Office of the Commander

The Kremlin, Moscow

2312 Hours Local

After the most recent mission, I had went into the battlefield to retrieve something I had seen during the attack. After I dug it up, I found that it was another piece of the sword that I had already found two pieces of. This piece was long, and looked like it could have been the blade of it, but after testing it; I found that it wasn't sharp at all.

I would have to find the other pieces before I could do anything with this thing, but for now, I just left it in my personal safe. There was enormous power trapped within that though. Our reading had spiked out at around several megatons worth of energy when we took the readings and extrapolated them.

Another thing that had to be done after the battle was seeing to Veronica Barns. She had been trapped inside the body of a Hydralisk for a very long time, and now it was our job to put her back in her more or less human body. As for the Hydralisk, or what was left of it after those mutations, we'd let her keep it, but only if she maintained direct control over it at all times.

Once that was taken care of, we had bid our farewells, and departed the Starcraft Universe with several new pieces of new technology that were sure to give us a combat edge against the Yeerks, especially when we started to combine our own technology with theirs.

After filling out the profits and losses forms, I looked outside my window at Moscow and thought that our victory would be a total and FINAL one. The war to end all wars, in a sense.


End file.
